Suzanna Beckford from Britain rests in a hospital in the Turkish resort of Marmaris on Monday. (Reuters)

Marmaris (Turkey), Aug. 28 (Reuters): A bomb blast killed three people and wounded dozens in the coastal city Antalya today in a second day of attacks on Turkish tourist resorts apparently designed to scare off foreigners and hit the economy.

Blasts yesterday in Turkey’s largest city Istanbul and the coastal resort of Marmaris injured 27 people and a Kurdish rebel group believed linked to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) said today it carried out those attacks. “Nothing in Turkey will be as it was before,” the shadowy Kurdistan Liberation Hawks (TAK) said on its website, claiming responsibility for yesterday’s blasts.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for today’s explosion in Antalya, the Mediterranean tourist hub, which killed three Turks.

Locals and witnesses said they heard a loud bang which broke windows, shattered glass, sent shrapnel flying into human flesh and sparked a fire at a shopping area in the heart of the city, one of Turkey’s most popular destinations.

“I saw two wounded tourists and the burned body of a dead man, a pastry vendor,” said holidaying journalist Riza Ozel.

Officials at three hospitals contacted by Reuters said they had received in total 38 wounded people. Russia’s vice-consul in Antalya, Sergey Koritsky, said the injured included a German, a Jordanian, two Iranians, four Israelis and a Russian.

“There was a fire and a lot of cars were damaged, a lot of motorbikes were damaged,” he said, adding that the street was packed with restaurants and shops.

The Antalya blast came less than 24 hours after three bombs in Marmaris injured 21 people within 15 minutes and a device in Istanbul wounded six people.

Television images from Antalya showed shattered shop windows with goods scattered, bicycles torn apart on the street, crowds gathering and men carrying wounded and bloodied people, many in a state of shock.

In Marmaris, 10 Britons and six Turks were wounded when a bomb placed under a seat in a minibus exploded on a street crowded with bars and restaurants around midnight.

“Who did this? What do they want from these people?” Suzanne Bedford, whose two grandchildren were being treated at the Ahu Hetman hospital in Marmaris, asked an official.

Local authorities pledged to find the culprits, suspected of belonging to the PKK, which has waged a more than 20-year campaign to carve a homeland in the mainly Kurdish southeast.

General Yasar Buyukanit, who took over as chief of general staff at a ceremony today, said separatist terrorism would be defeated. The army is stepping up attacks on the PKK and the rebel group has offered a conditional ceasefire.